My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

We speak with Laura Spinney, science journalist and author of "Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World" and discuss the dreadful disease that claimed 50-100 million lives, more than the Great War that preceded it. The so-called 'Spanish Flu' caused global damage but also caused scientists to reflect and develop bettter science and public health strategies. But how much have we learned those lessons? We discuss these topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A stubborn impeached governor, odd caucus locations, real estate and politics. Bruce talks about the Iowa Caucus, how it works, changes in 2020, its history and influence and what things look like this year. Impeachment and the current universe of politics in the United States. He finds a silver lining in the whole impeachment discussion, and discuss impeachment and political fallout, and Trump's chances. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's all of those things. Conversation with David Priess, MHCBUYP listener, COO of Lawfare, Author of several books - about impeachment and the decision to impeach, and the many sides to this question from Tyler to Clinton to Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What was the true function of the Proclamation and the context surrounding it? How did people react at this time? Was slavery the true cause of the Civil War, and should North and South fit into liberal and conservative boxes. Could Congress pick the President? And what podcast advice does Bruce have? Bruce takes Listener Questions in this episode. Music from Chris Zabriskie, Chris Novembrino and Lee Rosevere on this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Butterfield, Nixon’s deputy COS who revealed the existence of the taping system in the White House, gets only a small mention in Watergate history but he has a lot to contribute to the understanding of it. He recently spoke to Bob Woodward in a new book and his account and the records he kept for decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss the life and career of Youngstown, Ohio congressman James Traficant with Alex Hastie of Ohio v. The World Podcast. We rerun part of the episode from his podcast. We hear from Eric Murphy, director of the documentary "The Congressman from Crimetown" https://vimeo.com/ondemand/traficant The frumpled congressman was a fixture of Ohio politics and a national controversial figure until his death in 2014. We discuss do as you please politics and if there is similarity between Traficant and T Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk about the new UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Brexit, and Irish politics with Steven Byrne of What Am Politics Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

we discuss a recent Supreme Court decision and corporations as people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With C-SPAN's Susan Swain and Brain Lamb we talk Theodore Roosevelt and LBJ. And we discuss their book The Presidents, and the unique ranking system they use to assess and order America's POTUSes. e also talk abut some of the historians who helped them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About 3rd parties, with a focus on John Anderson's campaign and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Or so it seems these days. Liberals, conservatives, anti-globalists, Fed haters, socialists, libertarians all have a bone to pick with him. how much criticism does he deserve? We speak with Patricia O'Toole, the author of 'The Moralist - Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made."We look at the politics of tariffs, foreign policy, intervention, immigration, war and race through the lens of Woodrow Wilson. Remember to subscribe to My History Can Beat Up Your Politics on iTunes/Apple Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are joined by the author of Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol II, Sidney Blumenthal. In this cast, he talks about Lincoln in the 1850's, as he emerges as a small-time lawyer to being 'woke' by the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Bill to make a stirring speech and come to a definite conclusion about the future of the nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

a forgotten ally gets some credit in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Public offices are, what they should be, burdens to those appointed to them which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring with them intense labor and great private loss." So wrote a newly elected governor Jefferson to a friend. We take a look at his experience and the Revolutionary War in Virginia, discover a forgotten hero and learn a bit about Executive branch meets Legislative branch in the process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss all things Ike with William Hitchcock - author of "The Age of Eisenhower." We talk about how President Eisenhower was a surprisingly good politician, how he navigated Civil Rights, Social Security and other domestic programs, how he dealt with LBJ. We discuss the failure that upset him the most, and what he may have gotten wrong. We also get to the bottom of that Military Industrial Complex. (PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS - get a special episode on the 1957 Civil Rights Bill). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was the past better? Were the "Good Old Days" really all they are chalked up to be? Gregg Easterbrook, author of It's Better Than it Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear, has a bold argument. Things are better now then they have ever been. A reminder about our sponsor Warby Parker eyeglasses - get your try on pack of 5 frames at www.warbyparker.com/myhistory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bruce is interviewed on Ohio v. The World Podcast, which is the creation of MHCBUYP fan Alex Hastie. The subject is Curtis LeMay. Politically we know him as George Wallace's reluctant running mate in 1968. But there was much more to him, as Bruce and Alex discuss. His career spanned World War II, Kennedy, Vietnam, The Cold War and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

50 years ago, Medicare was created and some of it was recorded. We'll look at the original conversations that demonstrate LBJ's work on the bill, and compare the enactment of Medicare to the Affordable Care Act. And we'll contrast the two bill's passages and implementation, effect and popularity. Based on a previous cast called 'Medicare Atmosphere' from 2010... but updated and re-recorded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few questions, some from an older cast that now bears repeating in the wake of a new speaker election, and others from the premium channel now elevated. Was Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal allowed to happen by a quiet public, or was thee resistance? And what would Revolutionary protests look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Saturday Night Massacre was the name given to the triple firing of a special prosecutor investigating President Nixon, the AG and the deputy AG on the same night in 1973. After the firing of the FBI Director by President Trump, all eyes are looking back on this historical event. Are they right to do Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bruce takes a look at one day in the life and career of President George H.W. Bush - not in his presidency but in his vice-presidency. That day revealed his leadership style and set future precedents, perhaps. March 30, 1981 the day of the attempted assassination of President Reagan. We also look at Bush's Presidency and legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bruce and Daily Beast/CNN correspondent Matt K. Lewis talk about midterms, and Presidents post midterms. Bruce tells a story about Lincoln that he told 11 years ago. (more information on that story in the premium podcast). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are joined today by David Priess, former CIA intelligence officer and author about his new book on the history and the realities of impeachment, what people think it is, and what has really happened in history. He is the author of How To Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A law that may have given Billy The Kid a few more months of life, long enough to build a legend is still a part of today's politics. The rich history of the Posse Comitatus law that separated military from law enforcement and forbids, in some cases, the use of military on American soil. , Music by Lee Rosevere, Squire Tuck and Lucas Gonze at freemusicarchive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A look at one of America's earliest blockbusters, the little book that changed American minds: Common Sense, its author Thomas Paine, the impact it had at the time and what it might mean today. We also examine the creative differences Paine had with his printers, and how much it might have cost to advertise for a book in that time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Examining the moment in 1983 when nuclear war was possible with new research and stories from the Soviet side. How close did we come to war? And could that war have been accidental? w/ White House Correspondent for National Journal and Political Editor of The Atlantic Marc Ambinder, author of "The Brink - President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983." We double down on some of the points made in the Reagan podcast with Marc's exhaustive research. We also get into the recent Trump-Putin sum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Matthews of Hardball joins the program!! He has just finished his book Bobby Kennedy - A Raging Spirit. Chris talks about RFK and how his history and childhood, and his relationship with Joe Kennedy Senior that informed his own politics. Those politics, according to Matthews, were just starting to develop at the end of his life, as he sought to defend society's less fortunate, while keeping working people of all races in mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elbridge Gerry lent his name to a tricky political maneuver. Not that he wanted to, or perhaps, deserved it. With gerrymandering of congressional districts and state legislative districts on the agenda of the Supreme Court, Bruce discusses the court case Gill v. Whitford and then revisits his cast from 2013 about Elbridge Gerry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everything you know about the Russian Revolution is wrong, and understanding that is the key to understanding today's Russia as well. A very interesting conversation with Mikhail Zygar, Editor in Chief of the TV Dozhd and the Author of All the Kremlin's Men. He joins us to speak about his book The Empire Must Die - Russia's Revolutionary Collapse. We talk Russia 1917 and the revolution before the Bolsheviks. We also talk Russia 2017 and Putin, America, democracy, struggle and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of the 1978 World Cup, a cautionary tale about democracy. The world spotlight on the junta that controlled Argentina that year helped focus some attention on the plight of the victims of a vicious dictatorship, but locally, may have enhanced support for the regime. We talk about soccer and politics, we talk about democracy and the dangers of losing it, we read a bit of Eduardo Galeano's Excellent Soccer in Sun and Shadow. Music from Lee Rosevere Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taft fails in trying to lower tariffs, setting up his successor to do it. In frustration, he walks away from the White House. Meanwhile, his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, destroys the tariff in several populist arguments. A look at Payne-Aldrich, the 1909 tariff bill that was as least as important as Smoot Hawley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is infrastructure always good? We talk with Greg Young of the Very Popular "Bowery Boys NYC" podcast, about infrastructure. In particular the story of Robert Moses and his career reforming New York's infrastructure. Until he met his match. We also talk about Trump's career in NYC, and whether Mark Zuckerberg is the new Vanderbilt. Music from Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We speak once again to David Priess, former CIA Briefer and the author of The President's Book of Secrets. While last time we spoke mostly about Presidents and intelligence, this time we get into the other people who use intelligence and how they support the President. In the course of the discussion, we talk about what we can know about Trump's briefings, what it's like to be a briefer, and what it's like to work with Robert Mueller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A look at 1944 and how intrigue, manipulation, misrepresentation, a few martinis, a song, an axe and a finger in the page of a book changed the history of the Presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Populism, Corruption, Citizenship and Immigration. Rome struggled with these issues in its Republic phase. Bruce is joined by Mike Duncan, host of The History of Rome Podcast, to talk about the pre-fall of the Roman Republic, period of 146 to 78 BC and the cast of characters that struggled for power at the time. Mike has come out with a recent book called "The Storm Before the Storm," which delves into this topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the leader of China erasing that country's 2 term limit, we are taking a look back at the 2 term presidential limit in the United States, how recent it is and whether it's a good thing. This episode is from 2012. BTW - As you listen this will make more sense - Hilmar Moore, Mayor of Richmond Texas - died in 2012 and thus is no longer mayor of Richmond Texas, his wife is currently mayor. Probably makes the case in a way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Mexican War, current U.S. politics, Mexican history are all topics Bruce joins Bob Crawford of the Avett Brothers and Dr. Benjamin Sawyer of Middle Tennessee State University, hosts of the Road to Now Podcast in Mexico where they discuss Mexico relations in front of a live audience. But first a little commentary about Benito Juarez. Thanks to the Road to Now for hosting us at the Avett Brothers at the Beach Festival Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a day everything changed and a new President inhabited the chair in the White House. The country and the world were anxious. Russia and Asia Pacific were frightening foreign policy issues. We are speaking of 1945, but as A.J. Baime, author of The Accidental President suggests, there are some similarities to today. A.J. Joins us on the program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He was essential to the colonial resistance to the Stamp Act. He was the bulwark of the American Revolution in Virginia. and supported Washington when others did not. Yet for many Americans, Patrick Henry is known for making one speech and uttering the words 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.' In this interview with Jon Kukla, author of Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty, we seek a fuller picture of this important man and discuss the Revolution, the Constitution and Slavery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While so much attention is focused on splits in the GOP, there is a gaping split on the left that while, perhaps not large, is important to understanding both what happened in 2016 and the politics of 2017 and moving forward. Special guest Chris Novembrino, of the 'Don't Worry About the Government' Podcast, has an interesting analysis of the splits between Progressives and Technocrats that will determine what happens in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the 40th Anniversary of the rock star's death, We talk to Bob Crawford and Dr. Ben Sawyer of The Road to Now Podcast about Elvis Presley, American life, rock and roll, drugs, the 'Shut Up and Sing' debate and many other things. Music (theme www.dontworry.tv and www.bensound.com -background) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Polarized politics, fear, a media with intent to inflame and make its owners famous, no budging on either side, confidence and even mania - that's the combo that author Paul Starobin of the Atlantic and the New Republic describes as the factors that lead to South Carolina's secession in 1860. We talk to him about his book "Madness Rules the Hour:" Charleston 1860 and the mania for war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A replay of our interview with Thomas Oliphant: Will the real JFK please stand up. What image should we have today of the 35th President. Our interview with author and Boston Globe reporter Thomas Oliphant, about his book Road to Camelot Inside JFKs Five Year Campaign. We talk about how we should view the President who will turn 100 this month. Music by Lee Rosevere and Theme Song by Chris Novembrino We are part of Airwave Media Network - check out Ben Franklin's World, Tea Time History, Redacted History, the History of China, The Explorers Podcast, The Age of Napoleon www.airwavemedia.com Want to Advertise on My History Can Beat Up Your Politics? [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I interview decorated Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" Star Kevin Lacz. He is he author of THE LAST PUNISHER, A Seal Team Three Sniper's True Account of the Battle of Ramadi. He served with Chris Kyle, the subject of the movie American Sniper and played himself in the film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We tackle a group of topics in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does history create a Presidential image? We try to answer this with a look at how Lincoln became an image. Not only were historians involved but the family, a sculptor, some oddballs and some really good Lincoln friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Presidents and Intelligence, from Kennedy to Trump. With a particular focus on the PDB or the Presidents Daily Briefing with Dr. David Priess, the Author of The President’s Book of Secrets. We discuss: Tension Presidents and The CIA, In History and Today How Kennedy’s Pace Dictated How Agencies Work What the President’s Daily Brief Does Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George Washington is a distant figure. Sometimes, because of the distance in time, he appears too ancient to influence America’s debates today. But he was a real person, and he was involved in politics and dealt with partisanship. He also left behind instructions for future generations. Daily Beast.com Editor-in-Chief, CNN Political Analyst John Avlon joins […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices